Mike’s Twitterisms

When I first started with Twitter I followed anyone who followed me. I figured I would just be cordial and automatically return the favor and follow back.

Then I learned – huge mistake!

To try and prevent the spread of twitter-bots and SPAMers, Twitter established a limit where an account may not Follow more than 2,000 people until that account itself has 2,000 Followers. Thus, I could not follow more people back until I reached that 2,000-followers mark. I realized I had to get picky about who I followed.

Even though this post was originally written over 4 years ago (this inserted comment is from September 10, 2014) my tips on whom I choose to follow are still applicable and might be useful for others. The might also be helpful in weeding out those annoying bots and spammers. Trust me, they don’t “know who they are” because many aren’t real tweeple.

I Won’t Follow

Anyway, here’s a list of my standard filters on whom I will NOT follow back and, if I do so accidentally I’ll fix it by using @manageflitter:

There’s no profile pic. It’s like they’re giving us egg in our face. In a previous Twitter version it was like they were giving us the “bird.”

There IS a profile pic and they are giving us the “bird.” (Really? And they want followers?)

There IS a profile pic and they’re flashing armpit hair while, quite brazenly, thinking we are checking out their abs. (I assure you I am not.)

The profile pic is of someone who, quite obviously, isn’t of themselves. (Twitter isn’t a costume party and they’re not that hot in real life.)

The profile pic is eerily similar to (or an exact duplicate of) dozens of other bots I’ve seen. (How about some originality you dufus-bots?)

There’s no Bio about who they are or their interests. (Are they Secret Spies for MI6 or something? Details please…)

There’s a Company Twitter account with zero personalty behind the corporate tweets. I want to engage, not be a recipient of constant PR, ads, MLM, +1 This or Like That, Vote for Me, Check out our videos! or pushy sales-blather.

They are from Nigeria and they need our help to move millions of $$$. (Go bark up someone else’s Twitter stream please.)

They have an endless stream of tweets that obnoxiously twitter about:

Whiter Teeth!
Join the greatest MLM money-making, get-rich-quick, questionable business, work from home pyramid scheme.
YOUR CAPS LOCK KEY IS STUCK (IT MAKES YOUR TWEETS REALLY LOUD)
Anything mentioning the Donald Trump network (or his orchestra.)
Affiliate Marketing is making you xxxxx$’s per day on Twitter. (If this is so then stop tweeting and go yachting…)
They have hot pics or we should see them on their new web cam (zzzzzzzzzzzzz)

They have a secret system for 1,000’s of followers a day and have like . . . 6

They have no tweets or haven’t tweeted in a month. (Why are they here?)

They SPAM us with a DM telling us we can learn more about them or that we should connect with them on Facebook (Twitter is like a first date. Just cause I follow you there doesn’t mean I’m ready for a Facebook relationship.)

They ask us to Like them on Facebook. (Lesson #1 – Facebook Likes are earned and aren’t given just for the mere asking. Write that down.)

I’ve shared some of my successes and amazing experiences from using Twitter, both personally and professionally, in this blog post.

You engage in conversation with me directly, such as mentioning me in a tweet (what a concept!) @mikewhitmore

You share (RT) my tweets.

You make me laugh or you tell me that I made you laugh.

You give me a sign (a tweet, a pulse, a pic, a video) that you’re a real person.

Or, you’re a company and I tweet about your great product or customer service and you respond back!

I’m on Twitter to engage with and meet real people. I’ve met hundreds of tweeps in person, on the phone, opened new friendships, relationships, business opportunities, more learning and enriched conversations with many. I’ve recruited using Twitter several times and I’ve also asked people I’ve met on Twitter to be speakers and panelists at conferences produced by my company.

Yes, Twitter is powerful and I like connecting with people who use it to engage. Let’s keep it real and I look forward to connecting with you real peeps out there!

I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU SAID. WHICH IS WHY YOU NEED TO VISIT MY HOT NEW WEBCAM PAGE. YOU WILL SEE SOME OF THE HOTTEST PICTURES OF BABES WITH SOME OF THE WHITEST TEETH YOU HAVE EVER SEEN. AND THEY ARE ALL MAKING SIX FIGURES A DAY SIMPLY USING TWITTER. HOW DO THEY DO THIS? IT’S A LITTLE KNOW SECRET I LEARNED FROM DONALD TRUMP.

Great Stuff Mike!
Scott.

mikewhitmore

You make me laugh every time!

http://www.dadisiinthehouse.com Nick

You know, I agree with you but something holds me back. There are a lot of people who say oh, you shouldn’t twitter this or that because it’s boring. You should keep it about work or whatever your speciality is. I tend to tweet fewer things because of this line of argument. I mean, it is true that most of what we do all day long is, in the ensemble, boring. What’s your philo on that?

http://www.freshconsulting.com Mike Whitmore

I say “it depends” and that dependency comes from your social media strategy as to “why” you’re tweeting. I’m a unique case (as we all are) as I tweet as the executive of a firm that offers Social Media consulting as a smaller part of our business strategy consulting practice. I got into Twitter as an experiment and really wanted to engage with people on a number of topics. If I only tweeted work-related posts or tweets mentioning Fresh Consulting it would bore most people (including myself). You’ll find I tweet about work items, sure, but also personal things all the time and I’ve built up a respectable following just being me. It works for me, but it may not work for everyone. Hence, my answer that it depends… Happy to connect sometime to discuss if you like.

http://www.ReoGold.info Helen C. Martin

What a great article. I admit I am not as good at tweeting as I’d like to be…Twitter is the one social media tool that has taken me awhile to get. I don’t want to be one of those people posting just any content or things that people don’t care about.

Your article was helpful. I have only met two people in person off of Twitter, but I’m hoping to meet more.

Cheers!

Helen

brandon mark williams

Great twit-equette. My brother in law is on staff at BSA. Send me an E-mail. Thanks Mike

http://twitter.com/URKidnRite URKidnRite

This is helpful guidance. The parts about engaging and interesting in my mind outweigh the non-descriptive stuff. If you use these as hard and fast rules, you wouldn’t find people like @Iconic88, who just received a top 10 recommendation from U-Tweet.it http://om.ly/jAjg and you wouldn’t friend me. Sheesh! I’m a little bit funny and engaging.

Agree completely on MLM, caps lock, teeth whitening, etc.

I’m not public about who I am, but I’m engaging and honest, I like to think.

http://www.freshconsulting.com Mike Whitmore

Lol – well, I do make exceptions to these rules once in a while as I like to connect with all sorts. It’s really the armpit hair rule that I won’t waiver on.

http://twitter.com/URKidnRite URKidnRite

and that, sir… is a great plan. Adding that to my list

http://sharonmostyn.com Sharon Mostyn

Great post Mike! I am also particular about who I follow back and you’ve provided a nice, concise checklist to use in order to have maximum quality communication with your followers!

Sharon Mostyn
@sharonmostyn

http://thinkspace.com Alyssa Magnotti

Awesome post, Mike! And, so true! I am one of those lucky 40 who have gotten to meet with you because of Twitter and that was definitely a plus! When you write that list about how Twitter has helped you personally and professionally, I would LOVE to RT it! I will be writing one of those soon myself! I just cant believe how many friends, community members and even clients have come out of this amazing tool!

Yes thank you Mike! I was needing that exact information to learn more about how to use twitter myself, great helpful twitterisms!

http://twitter.com/jackindknow Coral.

Hi Mike this was very helpful info and easy to understand I like that.

http://fingercandymedia.com/ Jessica Northey

youre a funny guy! I love this glad I know you!

http://www.jacareercoaching.com Jennifer Armitstead

This is a great post… Information still applies 10 months later. I’m glad I have a real picture so that you’ll follow me!

http://socialhospitality.com Debbie Miller

Awesome list, Mike! Perfect blend of authentic (and valid!) feedback with great wit laced throughout. More people need to reference this list!

Cynthia Schames

I love this article and agree with it wholeheartedly! However, I LOLed for real at this, on the blog: About the author: the author didn’t add any information to his profile yet.

@FromTulsa

That’s a great policy. I’m always conscious of others’ feelings but I’ve also got a couple of hard and fast rules about following back. If I see one-way conversations of a personal nature, unusually frequent foul language, too many hashtags (argggh), obvious misquotes, nasty bio pics, insulting convos, and radical tweets, I won’t follow back.

Since my main interest is politics, I keep the largest amount of tweeps in my pol List. Like you, that’s the only way I’ve found that I can get the most benefit from their input. You are very wise; it took me a while to figure it out. I wish I had found this blog a few months ago. Glad to be included in your list.

http://about.me/johnrefford John Refford

Mike, I see you’re following ~30,000. I myself can’t actually use twitter if I follow over 600 people and knowing that many only follow if one follows back, I’m in a catch 22. How do you use twitter effectively at that scale? I create lists and separate my feed into lists but I still feel like I miss a lot of what’s being said.

Hey John, great question. Yeah, I miss a lot too. I do create lists in Twitter and then use the columns in Tweetdeck to separate areas of interest. And I don’t worry too much about missing tweets. One of the handiest techniques I’ve used is to RSS feed certain Tweeps where I don’t want to miss a single thing they share. Now, I RSS my own tweets as well to keep a running history of what I’ve tweeted.

It sounds like you know what you’re doing … but let me ask … are you utilizing Twitter Search as well? This is really helpful to find topical conversations as they are happening.

Also, I am trying to watch my overall stream a little more to engage when I can with someone who I’ve not listed yet.

So, as you might guess, I’m in Twitter a LOT, but it’s part of my work as a social media anthropologist, if you will. I don’t recommend anyone do what I’m doing unless it’s their full-time gig.

Just some quick thoughts on what helps me stay engaged.

http://about.me/johnrefford John Refford

Thx for your reply Mike. Using RSS is a great idea. I live and die by Google Reader.
Can I assume your following individual tweeps? So far I haven’t found a way to pump lists into a valid RSS format.

http://mikewhitmore.com Mike Whitmore

My pleasure John. Yes, there are individual Tweeps that I follow closely, don’t want to miss a thing they tweet. I’ve not found a way to put lists into RSS either. Now THAT would be interesting for sure.

@MimiBakerMN

Love this beyond words. I said “yes” to every single one of those!!

Mike Whitmore

Mike is the President of Fresh Consulting. Fresh is a business strategy consulting firm, delivering solutions utilizing Web and Enterprise technology implementation, design, crowdsourcing models and best business practices involving collaboration technologies, social media, program and project management, mobile app development, website design and content creation.